Twenty-year old Jelena Ostapenko was the story at the 2017 Women’s French Open. Along her path to the title, the 47th-ranked and unseeded Ostapenko beat Louisa Chirico, Monica Puig, Lesia Tsurenko, Sam Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki, Timea Bacsinszky, and SImona Halep.
The road to victory was not easy for Ostapenko. She won five of her seven matches in three sets.
Unfortunately, there were no Cinderella stories for the 16 American women. As a group they finished 13-16. With the exception of Venus Williams, they demonstrated their strength was not playing on the red clay at Roland Garros.
First round losers were:
• Louisa Chirico
• Alison Riske
• Coco Vandeweghe
• Christina McHale
• Julia Boserup
• Jennifer Brady
• Amanda Anisinova
• Lauren Davis
Chirico lost to Ostapenko, McHale lost to 8th seed Kuznetsova, Brady lost to 13th seed Kristina Mladenovic. Admittedly, these women had tougher than normal first round matches. On the other hand, Coco Vandeweghe (seeded 19th) and Lauren Davis (seeded 25th) did not hold their seeds. It is noteworthy that Amanda Anisimova played in both the girls’ junior singles and the championships.
The following American women were 1-1. They bowed out in the second round:
• Madison Brengle
• Varvara Lepchenko
• Taylor Townsend
• Madison Keys
Unfortunately, Keys did not hold her 12th seed.
Four American women had 2-1 records, losing in the third round:
• Shelby Rogers
• Catherine (CiCi) Bellis
• Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Bellis, an 18-year old, is the youngest of the group. She has shown promise since defeating 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova at the 2014 U.S. Open. Bellis has improved since that match and is on track to be a force in the top ten.
Venus Williams, seeded 10th, was the only American woman to hold her seed with a 3-set loss to Timea Bacsinszky in the round of 16.
The next Grand Slam stop is WImbledon. Will Venus Williams continue to play well and be the American woman with the most wins? Will Madison Keys finally have a break through tournament? WIll one of the younger players such as Jennifer Brady, Shelby Rogers, or Coco Vandeweghe have a break through event? Check back in a couple of weeks.